The collection consists of a bundle of manuscript notes and drafts forming Bonney's history of the Tower of London, as well as miscellaneous notes on the Tower, diary kept while Bonney was in the Tower, a list of papers seized by the King's messenger at J. A. Bonney's in Percy Street on 15 May 1794, correspondence including letters 1807-1808 to Spencer Perceval the Chancellor of the Exchequer with suggestions for the regulation of taxes, documents, wills, and family portraits. There are also other miscellaneous family items such as an election account book for 1802, a diary of Francis Augustus Burdett Bonney 1827-1836, and correspondence and documents.

Also included at SC-Acc-2021-0021 is the sixth and final part of John August Bonney’s manuscript history of the tower of London, dated ca 1794 (begun when Bonney was himself imprisoned in the Tower). It consists of notes on prisoners held in the Tower during the Civil Wars of the 1640s, followed by an index of prisoners held in the Tower. There is also a note on the life of John Bonney, sent as a letter, dated 29 November 1825.